Forth Defences, Middle, Braefoot Point Battery
Pier (First World War)
Site Name Forth Defences, Middle, Braefoot Point Battery
Classification Pier (First World War)
Alternative Name(s) Forth Defences; World War I
Canmore ID 271608
Site Number NT18SE 25.08
NGR NT 17710 83128
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/271608
- Council Fife
- Parish Dalgety
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Dunfermline
- Former County Fife
NT18SE 25.08 17710 83128
A stone built pier is situated at the end of a metalled track leading from the Barrack block (NT18SE 25.06). It measures about 95m in length including the pier head. Bollards are in situ on the pier head.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), March 2005
Project (March 2013 - September 2013)
A project to characterise the quantity and quality of the Scottish resource of known surviving remains of the First World War. Carried out in partnership between Historic Scotland and RCAHMS.
Field Visit (9 August 2022)
The pier that was constructed at Braefoot Point during World War One was an integral part of the gun battery as it allowed boats to land on an otherwise hazardous rocky shoreline, in turn permitting the straightforward transfer of personnel and the transportation of materials between Braefoot Point Battery and garrisons on the island in the River Forth. The design of the pier appears to be such that it was intended to facilitate the tying up of comparatively small craft. A set of steps, now incomplete, descends from the end of the pier to a point beyond the low tide limit, indicating that small boats could ‘land’ there irrespective of the state of the tide.
The pier itself is situated on a rocky outcrop (Braefoot Point) that projects out into the river and the concrete road that approaches it from the NE does so by utilising further outcrops between the shore and the pier. This road is 75m long and 3.7m broad and where necessary it is supported by a heavily battered concrete-faced causeway. The pier is L-shaped on plan, measuring approximately 23m from NW to SE by a maximum of 11.1m transversely, with the angle of the L facing inshore (N). It is constructed of large concrete blocks probably enclosing a rubble core. Three mooring posts remain in situ as are a number of rusting metal uprights around the pier edge each of which has a looped top containing two iron rings – probably an indication that there was once a chain or rope linking the posts. No trace was found on the date of visit of the crane that is depicted on the end of the pier on a 1918 Ordnance Survey plan of the battery.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff, A. McCaig), 9 August 2022.
Ordnance Survey 1918. 1:360 scale plan of Special Survey War Department Site at Braefoot Point, Fifeshire - NLS: MapArea.C18:13(05).
